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How can he say that Detroit is a second tier club, then go on to name Calgary, Colorado, and Vancouver as phenomenal teams? And Hudler is a guy we've been counting on for a long time now? Since when have we counted on him? It's his second year, and by some accounts he almost didn't make the team last year. It must be really easy being an ESPN hockey analyst. All you have to say is that "The young guys need to step up. They need to get better." And when it comes to actual analysis, like the Schneider-Rafalski debate, you call Schneider better defensively? Rafalski just played for New Jersey for how many years? You don't play in New Jersey if you're a sieve. I don't know why anyone listens to this guy.

I heard Brad Marsh is thinking about coming out of retirement...

Well, I never said that Lilja is a rock. I just think that his showing in the postseason gave him a top 6 spot for the start of the season. I said it was his spot to play out of, so if he reverts to his old self, then you can be sure that Quincey/Lebda will be in there in a heartbeat. I think you bring up some really great points, but the last paragraph is a little off because no one said for us to overload our defense with guys like Lilja and Quincey. I don't think having two defensemen that have the potential to move people off of the puck is overloading a 6 man corps, is it? And your point about balance (pairing a puck moving dman with a defensive dman) would still hold true if both are in the lineup. I would still say Cheli can move the puck, he's just not going to put up a lot of points, but he can get it up to our forwards consistently. So that means we have 3 puck movers (Nick, Rafalski, and Nik) one defensive with a good pass (Cheli) and two defensive (Quincey, Lilja). I think that's pretty good balance. Don't get me wrong, Lebda still has potential and I think he can be a good every day player in this league. The Wings just have a glut of similar players with a more well rounded skill set. Other teams would kill for the amount of defensemen we have that can move the puck, so we're in a good position either way.

I agree that Lilja and Quincey bring about the same thing to the table, but I think that Lilja played his way into a regular spot with his play last playoffs. It's his to play out of, which if he doesn't throw his body around like he did in the playoffs he may just do that. The question of Lebda or Quincey is valid in that it basically asks "What do we need more of right now?" It's an speedy small guy with some offensive upside, or another bigger defensive defenseman that can try to contain the opposing team's forwards down low. If that's the question, then you almost have to answer with Quincey. While I like Lebda, we have a lot of offensive dmen on the roster and I think that the other three are better (If Kronwall can stay healthy and get a little PP time). Quincey brings a body that is sound defensively and battle for position better than Lebda.

Dino Ciccarelli Award- Best crease front player in the NHL. Phil Housley Award- Best Powerplay quarterback. Scott Stevens Award- Best hitter.

I was a little down on Malts this year, but I thought he played pretty well during the playoffs. If he can duplicate that over the next few years I won't be discouraged from the signing.

Minnesota is my favorite Province in Canada.

Pronger's done this his whole career. Whenever his team gets down in a game, he tries to take someone from the other team out. It's almost always an elbow too. He needs to just man up and take the loss, come back and try again next game.

Yeah, they mike some players for the games to see what goes on down on the ice. It's usually not too insightful. I'm guessing his f bomb slipped because he's a kid who got hit in the face and his emotions went a little crazy. About the profanity, it is getting a little out of hand. Just know that most of the people using it are new members and won't be around that long after the playoffs. You've had some good input here, so stick around man and after the series is over you'll see expletives die down again.

If that wasn't a lame attempt at trash talking, then what was it? Did he actually have a gift for Pavel and Sammy? You think he was joking around with Pavel? 1- It wasn't laced with expletives because he knew he was miked. 2- Maybe I missed it, but I never saw a high stick, but I did see him run into the butt end of Hasek's stick when Dom had his blade on the ice. That explains the no call. Then the tantrum he threw before kamikaziing Chelios was pretty ridiculous too. 3- I'm sure there was trash talk all over the ice. It's a professional sports game. Of course there was trash talk. 4- Nice dig at the web site you are currently using. It's funny how the Sharks fans thought this was a really classy site, now that the series has changed the posts here are profanity laced trash. I know there are some Wings fans here that throw in numerous expletives (see the above poster), but don't attack a forum where 95% of the posters here have class and show hockey knowledge. That comment you made was as lame as Perry's.

Yeah, that was pretty funny. "Tell Samuellson he's gonna get it......oh and you'll get it too." Why not tell Sammy himself? Like someone mentioned earlier, he should have just passed a note to Pavel that said "Do you want it? Circle Yes or No" And then hopefully he would give it back to Pavel to give it to Perry. What terrible trash talking. I'm embarrassed for him.

Dani's been great this playoff season, but he's not totally a Vladdy type. Vlad would get the other team so pissed off at him on a regular basis. He was the king of the discreet slash and the little elbow jab. He could really play too. I'm not trying to take anyhting away from him, Dani is a good defenseman and physical, but he's not as big an irritant as Vladdy was. That being said, I think they look a lot alike too.

On top of that, I didn't know Sweden was in Eastern Europe. Last I checked it was pretty far North.

I'm just afraid that Giguere is going to take off his mask and reveal an adolescent black child from the streets, who will then flip the puck up on edge and take a slap shot, scoring from his own blue line on a shot he coins "The Knucklepuck". Or if Giguere is replaced by Julie "The Cat" Gaffney from Bangor, Maine. She's got a quick glove.

You guys are more than welcome to stick around, and hopefully you guys stay around for next season too. It was a hard fought series and I have a lot of respect for the Sharks and their fans. Seriously, stick around, you guys are great contributors.

And that's the reason why he has been thrown out of the faceoff on multiple occasions this series. If the linesman catches him doing it, they toss him every time. There's no suspension needed, hockey is a contact sport. Relax ladies.

Actually, Kronwall played pretty well for us in the playoffs last year. Lilja was terrible last playoffs. But he has gotten it together this year. Maybe all he needed to do is finally start hitting people and that turned his game around. His good play has directly coincided with his decision to start checking people. Go figure...

Joe Thornton played a hell of a game tonight. He was mean, physical and totally dominating. He did all of that while never getting out of control once. After seeing the way Iginla resorted to goonery in the last series and passing it off as leadership, I have to commend Joe for the game he played. He came up big when he had to. I think he's putting the NHL on notice that he's not going to vanish in the postseason from here on out. He's a superstar the league needs on the left coast. Side note: We only have to take one here at the Tank. Homer's back for game 4, so we'll be better. Win game 4 and then take care of home ice. We can do it.

See, I can't believe I'm defending the guy like I am. He's been my least favorite Wing all season, but he has been physical. In the Calgary series he got Iginla off his game with some solid checks and he's been putting guys into the boards all playoffs long. The one knock on his physical play is he doesn't get into the high traffic areas to try and score. He has been hitting though.

Yeah, but you need to be fair too. This isn't his first good game this playoff season. And I'm usually right there yelling at my TV about Sammy, but he hasn't done the things that drive me nuts the last two games. And he had a couple of decent games in the Flames series. I know a lot of the people on this site are too busy posting things in the game day thread during the game to actually take notice of what's going on on the ice, but starting a new thread making him the whipping boy isn't fair today. If someone watched the game last night, they would've seen what he can bring to the team, nullifying the need for this post. I'll agree he doesn't bring his A game enough, but give the guy a break after he has a couple good games at least.

Once Bertuzzi gets his timing back he'll be an asset to our team. He does create space out there, and he hits hard. Calder may sit due to his injury, or it will be Hudler again. Jiri played ok last night but he did get tossed around out there a few times.

I think this is the wrong day to start this thread. I thought Sammy played a decent to good game last night. He moved the puck on the point, he backchecked, he finished his checks and he didn't look lost out there with Pavs and Hank. He still shoots the puck right into the goalie's chest far too much for my liking, but he hasn't really been floating a wrister at the goal from 60 feet too often in this series. San Jose outplayed us in the third guys. They have the most dominant player in the series, and he played like it last night. Homer's back for game four, we'll be ok.

Well, yeah, you're right he won't be in with his current stats. The thing is that the guy is only 27. He has at least ten more years left in him. He has just under a point per game average, which is ridiculous considering he was about 100 points behind that pace after his first two dismal years in the league. On top of that, he's going to be playing with Cheechoo, Michalek and Marleau for the next four or five years at least. So by the time it's all said and done, barring injury, he'll be in the Hall of Fame range statistically. There's no doubt in my mind.

Yeah, he only has one gift goal this playoff season, but he isn't a goal scorer by trade. He's controlled the play whenever he's been on the ice. I was one of the people in this forum calling for Holland to package Datsyuk in a deal for him when he was leaving Boston. While I love Dats, Thornton is just ridiculous.

I'm with you then my friend. I have to say that's one of the most clever things I've ever seen posted on here. Cheers :chug: